CSTA Equity Fellow Dominick Sanders defines equity as “providing all of my students with equal access to rigorous and well-rounded curriculum along with the appropriate supplemental material to support learning the content.”
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CSTA Equity Fellow Dominick Sanders defines equity as “providing all of my students with equal access to rigorous and well-rounded curriculum along with the appropriate supplemental material to support learning the content.”
Sanders recognizes that not all students learn the same way, and works to provide additional supplemental materials and links to those students who may need them. He also makes connections with the parents of his struggling students to identify ways to better support them.
“If you could take a look inside my classroom you would see me during independent work time, walking around with a timer giving each student a little of my time,” shared Sanders. “By doing this, I was able to ensure that all students were understanding the content and if they were not, I would break it down another way until they demonstrate that they had comprehended the material.”
Sanders focuses on keeping his students engaged by building relationships with students from day one. By learning about his students, he’s been able to develop culturally relevant lesson plans for his students. “For example, I knew a lot of my students were chicken wings lovers so I used their love of chicken wings to teach them about arrays,” shared Sanders.
Throughout his career, he has disrupted inequalities by being an African American male in CS. “As an African American male with a CS degree, I felt compelled to give back by teaching in city public schools,” said Sanders. “I love teaching at under-resourced schools because that’s where I feel my talents are needed the most, helping the underserved.”
Sanders has held regional and national leadership positions for the National Society of Black Engineers in their pre-college space. Through these positions, he created connections with minority industry professionals, who then made classroom visits to discuss how CS is applied outside of the classroom.
“One thing that I’ve noticed is that being an African American male teacher in CS is very rare,” said Sanders. “As the years go by, I think I get better and better at improving access to the students. My students and peers have been telling me for years that I have so much knowledge to share.”
As a result of that feedback, Sanders founded Xposure STEM, which is designed to empower, expose, and equip underserved boys and girls to become leading contributors to the world of STEM. “With this work, I plan to continue to build my community up and close the gap.”
This year, Sanders took the role of Computer Science State Supervisor for the South Carolina Department of Education. He’s transitioned from the classroom to focus on ensuring that all South Carolina students from kindergarten through high school learn computer science and be equipped with the computational thinking skills they need to thrive in a digitally powered economy. His motto “CS is K.E.Y. Key” stands for kindle, equity, and you. “South Carolina has already made great strides in CS education. I feel honored to be in this position and I enjoy working with the various stakeholders as we continue to develop the path forward for students here in the state.”
Recognizing professional development for computer science educators is limited, Sanders applied to become a CSTA Equity Fellow to learn more equitable teaching practices. He also strives to become a better CS advocate at the local, regional, and national levels. Earlier this year, Sanders, along with fellow cohort members Lilibeth Mora and Deb Harding, organized the first-ever CSTA Equity in Action Summit. This event brought together K-12 CS teachers to call out inequities of access and achievement in marginalized groups and share strategies and resources to empower and equip teachers to address the digital divide. Additionally, Sanders, along with Mora, led a discussion with Coded Bias director Shalini Kantayya. Sanders also presented at the CSTA 2021 Virtual Conference and moderated a Q&A with Amazon’s Tye Brady during the Future of CS Summit.
You can learn more about Sanders, this year’s cohort, and the CSTA Equity Fellowship program here.
